Blackbox of crashed Sukhoi recovered

Pune: The flight data recorder (FDR),
commonly known as blackbox, of the Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter
aircraft which crashed here earlier this week, has been
retrieved.

"The FDR of the aircraft has been retrieved and the data
is being analysed," an Indian Air Force (IAF) spokesman from
the Lohegaon air base said on Friday.

The base, which is home to the squadrons of the Russian
made aircraft, will continue with "emergent and limited
flying" on Sukhoi-30 till the FDR information is fully
analysed, the spokesman said.

The aircraft which had taken off from the Lohegaon airbase
on a routine mission, presumably developed a technical snag
and crashed at Wade Bholai village, about 20 km from Pune on
Tuesday. Both the pilots ejected to safety.

The jet crashed at 1.30 PM, around 50 minutes after it
took off, the officials said.

This is the third time a Sukhoi fighter plane crashed
since the aircrafts` induction into the IAF in 1997.

Meanwhile, Air Marshal A K Gogai, who is the Air Officer
Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) of South West Air Command
(SWAC) visited the Lohegaon airbase last night and submitted
information on the sequence of events leading to the crash,
the third one involving Sukhoi-30.

He also visited the injured pilots of the ill-fated sortie
at a city hospital.